Gandhinagar: In a first, Gujarat Anti-Corruption Bureau(ACB) has booked KS Detroja, suspended managing director of Gujarat Land Development Corporation(GLDC), under Benami property transaction act, 1988. Detroja &other officers had been caught with cash over Rs56 lakh at their office in Gandhinagar

ACB had in April filed an FIR against Detroja after it found Rs 56.5 lakh cash in a search and seizure operation at the GLDC headquarters in Gandhinagar. The agency officials had also found Rs 1.28 lakh cash from Detroja’s office, Rs 40.52 lakh from the office of joint director K C Parmar, Rs 9 lakh from that of assistant director M K Desai, Rs 5 lakh from finance officer S M Vaghela and Rs 70,000 from the company secretary S V Shah.

ACB found gold ornaments worth Rs 63 lakh from a bank locker in Patan, belonging to Desai. A case under Prevention Of Corruption Act, 1988 was lodged against Detroja and others.
The probe revealed that Detroja and his aides allegedly took commission from farmers for clearing their grants allocated by the state government for projects like making farm ponds and soil tests. Officially earned only Rs 72 lakh during service.

Detroja began his government job in 1987 and he was promoted as class-2 employee in 1990 after passing a departmental exam. In 2004, he was promoted to class-1 after succeeding in another departmental exam. He was made MD of GLDC in 2014 where his last and highest salary was Rs 1.57 lakh per month. The total salary drawn by him is just Rs 72 lakh between1990 and 2018.

The ACB arrested Detroja and also seized Rs 56 lakh cash from his office. Probe by the agency uncovered that Detroja owns a farmhouse with a lavish swimming pool in Morbi, a 7-BHK penthouse on SG Road, 29 bigha agricultural land, a partnership in a petrol pump, and stakes in highway restaurants among other businesses.

The former MD of the land corporation bought a lavish 7BHK penthouse on SG Road for just Rs 7.50 lakh. According to the documents, the deal was done at just Rs 10 lakh, but the duty on it was paid by the builder himself.

A government valuer has been roped in to ascertain the market value of the assets owned by Detroja so that the case of disproportionate assets (DA) can be proved in the court.